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Psionicist
There are three main purposes of the Psionicist in groups. These are transport, damage dealing and darkening of lit rooms. There are new spells possessed by other classes that have lessened the need for Psionicists as darkeners, but they remain the only evilrace class that has an instantaneous transport ability. Psionicists possess excellent damage-dealing ability, rivalling that of Invokers. Psionicists are very highly desired in groups, and almost always guaranteed a place. The Newbie Guide has a great deal of useful information for starting players. Illithids are the only race that can be Psionicists. Psionicists are unique to the Evil racewar side. (See 'help racewar' for more information about how Good and Evil races interact on Toril). Illithids have exceptional Intelligence, Power and Wisdom, but only average Dexterity and Agility. They have the lowest Strength and Constitution of any race on Toril, and do not have gender. The lllithid hometown is Ixarkon, and it is located in the Underdark to the northeast of the Duergar hometown, Gloomhaven. When rolling, attempt to get the following attributes after bonuses; Perfect Power and Intelligence, Heroic Constitution. Decent (Average to Good) Strength and Agility can also be useful. The prime attribute of a Psionicist is Power. Psionicists are unable to use the 'say', 'ask' and 'shout' commands. They use 'project', 'pask' and 'massproject' instead. Psionicist abilites require the expenditure of Psionic Strength Points, more commonly called PSPs. To observe your current/maximum PSPs, type 'display all'. You may regain PSPs by sitting then resting then meditating, or by braindraining the proper type of incapacitated mobs (those with brains). No action may be taken while meditating. The syntax for braindraining is 'drain '. PSPs may also be stored in reservoir items. These are to be kept in one's inventory unbagged. The command to recharge PSP reservoirs is 'chargepsp '. One must possess the chargepsp skill to recharge reservoirs, it may be practiced once one attains level 9. PSP reservoirs may be charged at the same time as the restoration of one's own PSPs through sit->rest->meditate, in which case the full sequence for meditating and recharging the reservoir is sit->rest->chargepsp eservoirname->meditate. The Battlechanter and Bard classes possess a PSP regeneration song also. All abilities are listed under 'help skill_psionicist'. Level 1 * Aurasight - Aurasight allows you to determine the alignment of mobs, and also if they have alignment-based hostilities. * Combatmind - Combatmind is used on your mob followers. It increases their hitroll. * Mindblast - Mindblast is a single target direct damage ability. It has a chance of stunning its target. The likelihood of a stun increases as your skill in mindblast increases. Level 4 * Sense Danger - Sense danger allows you to detect the presence of hostile mobs in adjacent rooms, useful when you are unable to farsee or dayblind. When you have attained a high enough level in sense danger, you will be able to detect the direction in which the hostiles are located as well. Level 9 * Detonate - Detonate is a single-target damage ability. It can only be used against material enemies without a blood-based circulation, such as myconids, treants and corporeal undead. Level 12 * Adrenalize - Adrenalize increases a Psionicist's Constitution score, hitroll and damroll temporarily. There is a slight possibility that the projection will misfire and temporarily lower the Psionicist's score. This possibility diminishes as one's skill in Adrenalize increases. Level 14 * Project Force - Project Force is a single target direct damage ability. It cannot be used on incorporeal or wraithform mobs such as fire/air elementals or ghosts. Project Force has a chance of bashing its target, and also a chance of catastrophically misfiring and doing in excess of 250 points of damage to the Psionicist. The chances of bashing increase, and the odds of misfiring decrease as one's skill in Project Force improves. Project Force does more damage than mind blast. Level 15 * Body Control - Body Control allows one to acclimatise to hostile environments, such as underwater and burning rooms. IMPORTANT: Note that the protection from environmental "burning" accorded by body bontrol is NOT true protection from fire. This means that equipment is still vulnerable to destruction from fire breath, even if body control is active. * Catfall - Catfall either reduces or wholly eliminates the impact damage taken from falling, depending on the height of the fall and one's skill in catfall. * Sustain - Sustain satisfies the Psionicist's hunger and thirst when used. Note that this skill also consumes movement points. Level 17 * Flesh Armor - Flesh Armor reduces the Psionicist's armor class temporarily. When one attains a sufficiently high skill in flesh armor, there is a chance that one will receive a stone skin (as per the Enchanter spell) as well. * Reduction - Reduction decreases the Psionicist's height and weight, possibly making them harder to bash. * Expansion - Expansion increases the Psionicist's height and weight, possibly making them harder to bash. Level 20 * Death Field - Death Field is an area damage ability. It does more damage than any of the single-target damage abilities. * Equalibrium - Equalibrium removes any poison or blindness which might be affecting the Psionicist. Level 23 * Dominate - Dominate causes a mob to begin following a Psionicist. Dominated mobs may be braindrained at any time. Should one fail dominate on a mob, it will become aggressive. Only nonspellcasting mobs of up to half the Psionicists level may be dominated. Also, there is a limit to the number of dominated mobs a psionicist may control at one time. Level 26 * Mass Dominate - Mass Dominate attempts to dominate every mob in the room. The restrictions are identical to Dominate. Level 30 * Planar Rift - Planar Rift opens a rift to an alternate plane of existence. This is a quest ability. The planes are: ** The Prime Material Plane ** The Elemental Plane of Fire ** The Elemental Plane of Air ** The Quasi-Elemental Plane of Smoke ** The Ethereal Plane ** The Astral Plane Level 31 * Synaptic Static - Synaptic Static is a nonfunctioning ability. It is meant to cause mobs to forget a spell, but does not have any effect at all at this time. Level 35 * Globe of Darkness - Globe of Darkness darkens lit rooms, which enables races with ultravision (Drow, Duergar and Illithids) to see in daylight. This is a quest ability. Level 37 * Tower of Iron Will - Tower of Iron Will increases one's resistance to psionic attacks. The PSP cost is extremely high, and the duration extremely low, but one will most likely take no psionic damage at all with Tower of Iron Will up, making it a very worthwhile ability to use before fighting mobs with psionic attacks. I myself have taken psionic damage only once. Level 40 * Canibalize - Canibalize converts movement points into PSPs. The ratio of movement points expended to PSPs gained is extremely unfavourable unless one uses a massive proportion of one's total moves. This skill is not worthwhile to use. Level 41 * Shift - Shift causes the Psionicist or another PC to be instantaneously transported to a different "target" PC. The target and shiftee must both be on the same plane of existence, both must be in shiftable rooms, and both must be visible to the Psionicist. In addition, the Psionicist must have the shiftee's consent and be in the same room as him. Level 42 * Telekinetic Thrust - Telekinetic Thrust is the most damaging single-target skill a Psionicist acquires. It has a chance of disrupting a target's spellcast. The likelihood of disruption increases as your skill in Telekinetic Thrust increases. Level 45 * Battle Trance - Battle Trance increases the hitroll and damroll of fighting grouped PC followers of the Psionicist. When one has attained a sufficiently high skill in Battle Trance, there is a chance of berserking the affected PC followers, significantly increasing their hitroll and damroll, and removing their ability to flee. This is a quest ability. Level 46 * Stasis Field - While active, Stasis Field restores a small amount of HP to all in the room at a fast rate. Should the psionicist use any offensive ability, the stasis field will deactivate. * Wormhole - Wormhole opens a portal between the Psionicist and a dark (visible), teleportable target on the same Plane of existence. This skill is a quest skill. Level 47 * Ultrablast - Ultrablast is an area damage ability. It is the most damaging ability Psionicists possess. This is a quest ability At low levels, a Psionicist is likely to find itself alone, since the Underdark is not very populated. Ixarkon itself is a good spot to exp for the first few levels, so long as one kills only fodder races (the justice of Ixarkon frowns upon the killing of Illithids). Once one reaches level 15, the body control ability will enable passage to the Drow hometown of Dobluth Kyor, which is where the majority of the Evil races converge and reside. Once there it ought to be easy to join an exp group, since Illithids acquire their most useful single-damage abilities much earlier than other damage-dealing classes acquire theirs. To make a dominated mob perform a task, one uses the 'order' command. 'Order followers ' issues a command to all dominated mobs in the same room, 'order ' issues a command to a single mob. In combat, all dominated mobs will assist the Psionicist. Should this be problematic (such as when weak mobs assist and are killed), have them sent out of the room before fighting. To rid oneself of unwanted followers, order them to recline and sleep, then tog follow 2x or togpet. The toggling of follow causes one's previous minions to become aggresive to you. While asleep, they can be drained for PSPs without trouble. In zones, Psionicists will most likely have the entire group following them. This is because the ultravision races must be following a Psionicist in order to see in daylight, and Warriors, Rogues and Dire Raiders need to be following if they are to profit from Battle Trance. It needn't be stressful leading the group around so long as one has a decent link. The actual zone leader will always give directions, simply follow them carefully and all will be well. One thing to take note of is when warriors are sent ahead of the group into a room with many mobs. In such cases keep looking into the room before moving, and only enter once every mob is engaged. Should it be impossible to farsee into the room, simply wait a short duration (2 seconds) before entering. Another purpose is to deal damage. As a rule of thumb, I never use area damage abilities unless four or more mobs are in the room, because with 3 or fewer mobs it is more efficient to use single-target abilities. In rooms with 4 or more mobs, it is preferable to area. Before one uses the first deathfield or ultrablast, check to see that all mobs have engaged in combat already. A final purpose is shifting members of the group about. Simply ask who is to go to where, collect the necessary consents, and shift accordingly. * Psionicists, unlike casters, can meditate in a room where combat is taking place. This is useful during exp since one needn't "mem out" and risk missing the kill, and in zones where there is no safe direction away from the fight to mem. * NEVER SPAM AREAS. It is lazy, wasteful and very likely dangerous to do so. * Every offensive Psionicist ability can be used while sitting. This makes sitting down in fights a viable tactic, since this almost eliminates the possibility of being bashed. * Should it be essential that one is standing while fighting, use the Enlarge and Reduce abilities to re-size out of the bash range of the mobs (Enlarge yourself if fighting dwarves, reduce if fighting giants) * The projectforce bash works on every type of projectforceable mob but dragons. This makes Psionicists the only class able to bash giants and demons, and the only class able to bash in no-ground rooms. * In zones when Enchanters announce that they are reducing members of the group, always politely decline and use your own Reduce ability, as it is superior to the spell. * Mindblast stun is quite reliable once the mindblast skill is high enough. In certain fights it might be more useful for one to concentrate on stunning a casting mob instead of areaing. * If you are failing shift or wormhole, check the visibility and shiftability of the target. * Planar rifts drop in no-ground rooms, use spellcaster Gates instead. * Always use detonate when you can. The massive damage, low psp cost and short lag more than compensate for the low applicability. * At early levels, projectforce backfire will most likely kill you. Repeatedly. Bear with it, the only way to stop backfires is to improve one's mastery of the skill, which only comes through repeated use. * Should you be forced to choose, Max_power equipment is preferable to +psp equipment. * To acquire your quest abilities, make it a habit to talk to every mob. * A useful application of shift is to transport player corpses. The syntax for this is 'drag shift '. It may be necessary to acquire max_strength equipment to drag corpses of the larger races. *